Coach Munchak's Aug. 19 Practice Report

Unfortunately, we had a lot of guys that are sore from that game, especially from the linebacker position. There are quite a few guys who didn’t practice, so we didn’t have pads on for that reason. So, we could work on situations that still aren’t as efficient as they need to be, third downs and finishing drives on both sides. I thought it was good work that way, good energy for that, and a lot of young guys had a chance to get reps today.

(on if the players spirits are still up)

Sure they are. When you look at that game, it’s like any game. You want to win the football game. We didn’t. We didn’t play well in some areas; we did some things well in other areas. This game is going to be huge. We have to go out there in the third quarter and play better as a team. That started today, we watched the tape this morning learned from some of the things we didn’t do as well.

It’s a good start having him off the PUP and having him out here working out doing 7-on-7. He just did individual and 7-on-7 today, and then we’ll ease him in tomorrow with a little bit more team work. It’s great to have him working, and having Taylor Thompson back also, so we have two tight ends back.

(on Delanie Walker’s workload over the next couple of weeks)

We’ll see how he progresses on Wednesday and Thursday to decide if it’s worth him playing at all on Saturday. We’ll talk to him about it and kind of see where he’s at and deciding as a team what’s the best thing. If he doesn’t play this week, is it worth putting him in this other game with the offense for a couple drives? I hope he just progresses where there’s no setbacks that his knee does respond well. If we think he needs to play or he wants to play maybe by Wednesday for this Saturday, or by Thursday, then we’ll do that.

(on what he wants to see from the team this week)

We just need to play better. We need to play as a team on all three phases. We can’t miss field goals. We have to finish drives. We can’t have one field goal when we’re down in that area four or five times in the first half. I like what we did to get down there. I like the fact that we came out in the first drive and drove the field and put ourselves in position to do that. I like the fact that the defense got a turnover sack on the first series and gave us a chance to put points on the board. Obviously, we didn’t finish any of those drives. That’s the part, if we’re going to be a good football team, we have to be able to do those things and we’re working towards that. It will be big on Saturday night that we finish our drives on both sides of the ball.

(on what caused Rob Bironas to miss field goals in the Cincinnati game)

I don’t think his back is bothering him. Coming off an injury or medical condition you’re always going to be a little rusty because you haven’t really been in a game situation since last year. No, I don’t think his health is any reason why he missed. I think he hurried one. I think he was uncomfortable with the second one I think, maybe, after the first miss. We just hope again that we give him more opportunities the next two weeks so he gets it behind him. He’s another guy that’s been in the league a long time and has success, so we know what he can do, so we just have to go out there and do that.

When we started looking at the free agents, that’s one of the first guys Bruce (Matthews) came to and a couple of guys that he really like watching on tape. He thought that he brought, to me, what we were looking for, a tough guy down by the pile, good leader, been in the league a while, thought we needed some of that experience. We started watching tape on him and that’s why we brought him in after we signed Andy (Levitre) and thought that he’d be a great guy to mix in because he’s played guard, he’s played starting guard, he’s started at center. We needed that type of cushion because we know we’re losing some of our guys from the past. We’ve picked the need of what we wanted. He’s come in and done a very good job, he’s right in the mix for starting at center and playing a lot and being part of this team. That thing has to work its way out here in these next few days.

(on what Rob Turner has done at center to elevate himself)

I think (Brian) Schwenke getting hurt, guys take advantage of players getting hurt is something you have to be able to do in this league. Schwenke hasn’t been able to practice, so that kind of set him back, put him behind a little bit there. I thought he came in and brought what he had to his leadership stuff in the huddle. I think he does a good job handling the line scrimmage, making the calls, making the guys run and play better. I think he has a natural way with that. I think that’s just communication skills. He’s an athletic guy, he plays hard. He just has all the intangibles you’re looking for at the center position. So we thought it would be a good competition with him, (Fernando) Velasco and (Chris) Spencer. We have the three of them going forward, so it makes it a hard decision when you have three guys that are all doing a pretty good job.

(on the “nastiness” Rob Turner brings to the offensive line)

He does. He’s kind of like how Kevin Mawae was. He’s just a guy that knows all the tricks of the trade, plays the game within the game pretty well at his position, whether it be down by the pile where there will be different types of techniques we’ll use at center and guard. I think he has some of that because he’s been in the league long enough, been around good players and has he’s picked those things up so that helps him. He’s got a good understanding of what we’re doing and that’s why he’s right in the middle of things.

(on if Delanie Walker’s absence is the reason for the low amount of throws to tight ends)

Not really. I think it’s more of, the design is there, we got a drop by one of the tight ends in the game. We’d like to get them involved, if Delanie (Walker) is there, yeah, we’ll probably do more with Delanie. Maybe a game plan for him if he was playing like we do the receivers. But no, there hasn’t been a focus not to throw to them. It’s just worked out to where they haven’t caught any balls yet.

No, not really, just because the first game he threw 11 balls and last week a little bit more. Hopefully this week and next week that will even out as we play three or four games. We haven’t been making a conscious effort to do that. I think it’s just the way the things have gone and some of the things we’ve done. We’ve been running the ball a lot when that group has been in there; they’ve probably been running a lot more than anything. If Delanie (Walker) is playing this week and Taylor Thompson was out last week, you have two tight ends out last week. So, there wasn’t an emphasis as much as necessarily looking for the tight end.